"Education is all about partnership," said Michelin-starred chef Sat Bains. "It's about industry working with colleges," said Steve Thorpe, curriculum leader for food and beverage at City College Norwich. They were speaking at the Howes Percival-sponsored debate, "Are catering colleges letting employees down?" held in Norwich last week. What's surprising about their remarks is that both chef and lecturer were supposed to be on opposite sides of the argument, but ended up saying the same thing.

The subject for the debate in Norwich - staged like a criminal court - was sparked by comments that Bains made in a Radio 4 interview earlier this year. He said that colleges weren't providing the qualified staff that professional kitchens required. It's a point of view heard up and down the country.

There's some truth in this, as the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), which replaced the old City & Guilds examinations, have been devalued over the years by inconsistent curriculums and variable standards of examination. But that's a bit of a smoke screen.

Howes Percival managing partner Alan Kefford, leading a panel of three judges at the debate, concluded that colleges and industry both had to accept some of the responsibility for not providing properly qualified staff - the colleges because they often retain out-of-date lecturers and industry because operators don't enter into a dialogue with local colleges.

Kefford also took a sideswipe at the Government for not providing an educational framework that allowed more consistency. But it's the point about a college-industry dialogue that holds the key. If individual operators took a more active interest in their local college; if they met with course tutors, provided chefs to help lecturers, took in students and provided funding to equip college kitchens; if they put into practice what Bains and Thorpe suggest, then they might see an improvement in the standard of students entering industry.

For their part, the colleges need to open their doors a little wider and encourage industry participation. But if both sides did a little less bleating among themselves and a little more communicating with each other, they might find that it led to a relationship that benefited both sides. Alfred Hitchcock once said that conversation was the enemy of good wine and food. In this case, the opposite would almost certainly be true.